A Vice-Captain's Tale
by Lucathia Rykatu
Summary: The vice-captains of the Twelve Holy Knights never thought that their jobs would differ so vastly from their expectations. Tyler has really been missing out.
1. Prologue: Behind Every Great Captain

A Vice-Captain's Tale

by Lucathia

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

**Prologue: Behind Every Great Captain...**

* * *

A group of men sat around a table, drinking wine. These men were the vice-captains of the Twelve Holy Knights. As they drank, they counted the number present.

"...Eight, nine, ten, eleven... Looks like that's everyone," someone commented.

Adair lowered his drink and shook his head. "No, we should be twelve in number. Tyler isn't here."

"But he never comes anyway," came the immediate reply.

Frowning, Adair said, "He should join us, especially since Knight-Captain Hell is back with us." Like them, Tyler was a vice-captain.

"Ah, that's right, Knight-Captain Hell is back."

The vice-captains all looked at each other, similar thoughts on their minds. Tyler had always acted as the Hell Knight because of Knight-Captain Hell's absence. Now that the real Hell Knight was back, Tyler wasn't the acting captain anymore even though he had always been the one taking care of the Hell Knight's duties.

"Is he still angry about Knight-Captain Hell's return?" one of them asked, recalling how Tyler had vehemently refused to call Knight-Captain Hell by his title and had instead called him Knight Supreme Dragon.

"No," Adair replied, "they've sorted things out."

And by "sorted things out," Adair meant that Hell Knight and Tyler had dueled over and over again until Tyler couldn't help but end up admiring his captain's skill. Those watching soon figured out that Hell Knight's swordsmanship was even better than Judgment Knight's and Ice Knight's, and that was quite something.

"But do you think he even knows how to act as a vice-captain?" another person asked, voicing what was on everyone's minds. Tyler, despite being a vice-captain like all of them, had never had a captain to serve before Hell Knight's return. For many years, Tyler had been more like a captain than a vice-captain, having had to lead the Hell Knight Platoon and attend meetings as the Hell Knight.

"I bet not! Surely he has never before had to empty out his pockets to the last ducat for his captain!"

Most of the table laughed heartily. Some groaned.

"Why did you have to remind me of that..." one of them said, head buried in his hands as he lamented over his penniless state.

"I know what you mean. I had to do that _just _last week because of all those broken doors..."

Another said, "I had to buy baking ingredients."

"Seasonings for me," added someone else. "My captain says he'll pay me back, but... Considering how he has to buy paper and ink now as well, I'm not too optimistic about that."

"Blueberry pies," said the next person who was of course Adair, since no one else had a captain with such a sweet tooth.

Everyone had something to say except Vidar who held his hands up in defense once it became evident that he was the only one who hadn't spoken. "Don't look at me. Captain Judgment never asks for anything."

They gave him a look that clearly said they didn't believe that Vidar never spent money for his captain.

He caved. "Okay, he never asks for anything, but I still buy tea for him..."

Satisfied, they directed the conversation back to Tyler's situation.

"See? Surely Tyler has never had to pay repair fees or buy any number of things for his captain's sake."

Many shook their heads in disbelief. "He is so missing out. What kind of vice-captain is he?"

"Exactly, right? So missing out on what it means to be a vice-captain."

"Poor Tyler. He's never known our joy." The speaker wiped at his eyes dramatically.

"Guess that means we've just got to show him."

They raised their drinks and clinked them together, sharing a smile as they downed them. Oh boy did they have a lot to show Tyler.

"So, who wants to go get Tyler?"

After the question was asked, the Storm Knight Vice-Captain tucked his hair behind his ears and stood up, his chair scraping across the floor.

"I might as well start us off," he declared. "Wish me luck. My girlfriend will be exasperated."

* * *

**to be continued**

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**A/N:** There will be around 14 (very) short chapters to this. 13 to go!


	2. Suggestion 1: Get a Girlfriend

A Vice-Captain's Tale

by Lucathia

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

**Notes:** I will be addressing some of the vice-captains by their positions as "Vice-Captain Storm", "Vice-Captain Blaze", etc, since they don't have official names.

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**Suggestion #1: Get a Girlfriend  
**

* * *

"So, what did you need me for?" I asked with a frown. I had been practicing my sword when Vice-Captain Storm pulled me away. "And why is your girlfriend here?"

Next to us stood a cleric from the Sanctuary of Light. She haughtily tossed her long hair over her shoulder when I mentioned her.

The man beside me wagged his finger. "Tyler, don't be so suspicious. We're just trying to help. We thought you could use some pointers, considering how you're new to this business of being a proper vice-captain and all."

_Who is "we" and why do I need pointers? Surely his girlfriend has no interest in helping me?_

I looked at her suspiciously, and she sniffed, clearly not impressed with me.

Even though I hadn't had a captain until now, I had never stopped being a vice-captain. I looked glumly at the hilt of my sword.

_Have I been that bad a vice-captain that I need intervention? Even Adair has chided me about my behavior..._

I looked up. That still didn't explain the cleric's presence, so I decided to ask. "I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with your girlfriend again? I'm still not getting this."

He breathed out. "Tyler, it is of utmost importance for vice-captains to have girlfriends!"

"Really," I said flatly. I didn't recall Adair or Vidar having girlfriends, and they seemed like they were doing just fine as vice-captains.

"Yes, in fact, you should have everyone in your platoon get girlfriends!"

"You've completely lost me."

"Sigh. Do I really have to spell everything out? Fine, just watch this."

Confused, I followed along as we sneakily made our way through the corridors. I noticed that even though we were sneaking along, we managed to acquire a number of storm knights as we made our way to wherever our destination was. The curious thing was, they had also brought along several women who were possibly their girlfriends.

_This isn't a group date, is it...?_

Finally, after sneaking through several corridors as best as we could with such a large group, we came out to an open plaza near the entrance of the Holy Temple. There was a sizable crowd milling about the place.

"Good, there are lots of witnesses- I mean, people about. Honey, it's all yours now," he cooed to his haughty girlfriend. After he finished speaking, he hid behind a pillar.

I frowned. _What is he doing...?_

I didn't have time to wonder about him for much longer. In the middle of the crowd was a head of blue that could only belong to Knight-Captain Storm. Undeterred by the crowd, the cleric pushed her way through until everyone finally got it and moved out of her path.

The Storm Knight looked up with a wide smile and winked, but instead of falling for his charm, the cleric yelled, "Storm Knight, you heart breaker!"

My eyes widened when she followed that up with a resounding slap. Unfortunately for the Storm Knight, his hands were full, holding several sheets of paper, which was perhaps the reason why he had made no move to defend himself. That, and he was the Storm Knight after all. He would never raise his hand against a lady, right?

The expression on Knight-Captain Storm's face didn't change much; he still had a smile on his face, though it did look a little...frozen.

"Ow," said the man who had brought me here, the one who had brought his _girlfriend _here to yell at his captain.

"What was that?" I hissed at him, eyes darting at the pillar beside me. _Don't tell me that vice-captains are supposed to let their girlfriends slap their captain! _A hand appeared from behind the pillar, making some sort of shushing motion.

The cleric sniffed.

I hurriedly glanced back at the scene that was playing out before me.

For those who didn't know her, she might have sounded like she was about to cry, but I thought that her sniffing sounded awfully like how she had sounded when she had looked down on me not too long ago.

"Do you think that's enough?" one of the storm knights whispered. I noticed that like their vice-captain, many of them had taken to hiding, some behind bushes, some behind pillars, some behind me... "Or should I send my girlfriend in too?"

"Don't you think we're overdoing it a little..."

"Nah, this isn't enough!"

"Send her in! Send her in!"

I watched dumbly as another woman walked over and started telling the Storm Knight off. Then, she was followed by another, and another, almost like an endless stream.

The storm knights hiding behind me winced. Some were even dabbing at their eyes or clenching at their hearts. The bushes rustled.

"Oh my poor captain," one bush said.

_Why did you let your girlfriend yell at him then?! _

I did not understand what was going on at all. After the parade of women had all taken their turns recounting how the Storm Knight had broken their hearts, I started hearing the crowd around me murmuring and sighing.

"What a flirt the Storm Knight is!"

"Such a footloose charmer."

"Always breaking women's hearts."

The storm knights hiding around the scene seemed to collectively sigh in relief.

"Phew, that worked! So who's turn is it next week?"

"I don't think my girlfriend has had her turn yet."

I was still stunned when the Storm Knight smiled a crooked smile and started speaking, bringing my attention back to him. I didn't know why he had been silent until now. "Alas, my ladies, I am afraid that you must allow me to drift like the wind, for that is my nature."

He bowed and followed that up with a wink. "It was my honor that you allowed me to accompany you in the short but beautiful time we had together. If only the wind had not my attention, it would be yours."

After that, all of the females in the crowd started clamoring and going, "Pick me next! Pick me!" and all animosity toward the Storm Knight vanished just like that. Even most of the women who had marched up to him to accuse him were also staring at him with dreamy eyes. I thought I heard the storm knights cheer and say, "That's my captain!"

I was very confused, but I came away from that thinking that Storm Knight was indeed as footloose a charmer as the rumors claimed. After all, it looked to me like he had flirted with the girlfriends of his entire platoon, considering how so many of them had come to yell at him, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why all of the storm knights seemed so happy about that.

* * *

"That, my fellow vice-captain, is why you should get a girlfriend."

"So that she can yell at my captain?" I asked, still not understanding. _Don't even get me started on the messy relationships of your platoon. Just what is going on..._

"_Exactly_. It does wonders for my captain's reputation."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Did your girlfriend really go out with your captain? Isn't that...kind of weird?"

He looked at me with a funny look on his face.

I didn't think I would ever understand, so I decided to stop asking.

* * *

_The First Suggestion for Serving Your Captain: Get a Girlfriend (so that You Can Have Her Yell at Your Captain to Help His Reputation)_

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**to be continued**

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**A/N:** Well, there you go, this is how the rest of the story will feel like! Tyler's 1st person POV. And here I thought the first longfic I write about the vice-captains would be about Adair... Tyler, where _did_ you come from?

The idea of the Storm Knight Platoon sending their girlfriends in to help their captain's reputation of being a flirt was inspired by one of the people who left a comment over at my LJ. If you remember having this conversation with me, let me know! Thank you for the awesome idea!

If any of you have any scenes you'd like to see, feel free to suggest them to me through PM or through commenting over at my LJ (I have a stickied post at the top of my journal for that!). If not in this fic, perhaps you'll see the scene in another fic~.


	3. Suggestion 2: Clean All Cabinets

A Vice-Captain's Tale

by Lucathia

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

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**Suggestion #2: Clean All Cabinets  
**

* * *

My week was turning out strange. Truth to be told, I never mingled much with the other vice-captains. Call me arrogant, fine, but my position _had _been higher than theirs, and I did more than all of them too.

_...With maybe the exception of Adair. I'm not really sure exactly _how _much he does, but he always looks beat to me. He might as well take over for his captain!_

Adair was one of the few vice-captains I actually got along with. There had always been this sort of rift between the other vice-captains and me. Throughout my entire time in the Hell Knight Platoon, I hadn't exactly been "Knight-Captain Hell," nor had I merely been "Vice-Captain Hell."

I had kind of been... in between, and had belonged nowhere. I didn't go on outings with the other vice-captains, and they sort of left me alone without pushing matters. That was how things were supposed to be.

_Except now I suddenly seem to be the center of attention. First it was Vice-Captain Storm, and now..._

"A moment of your time?" Vice-Captain Cloud asked nervously.

Sighing, I put my sword away. It didn't feel like I would ever get to practice without getting disrupted! "What's the matter?"

The man shuffled over, his eyes trained downward, as if he didn't want to meet my gaze. I narrowed my eyes at his head. He mumbled, "Well, you know, since you haven't done this for long, we thought we'd give you a hand..."

I frowned. _No, I _don't _know. And seriously, who is "we"?_

He smiled timidly without clearing anything up for me, eyes only momentarily darting up at me before returning to his...hands.

I followed his gaze, looking down at what he was holding.

"...What's that for?" I asked.

Then, I found a dirty rag shoved into my hands.

* * *

Holding my breath so that I wouldn't breathe in any dust, I scrubbed at the inside of an empty cabinet with everything I had. After my furious scrubbing, I turned to the side to gulp in some air.

Beside me, Vice-Captain Cloud was also scrubbing and dusting away at the inside of a cabinet. He had his sleeves rolled up and his hair tied, a bucket full of soapy water next to him. He looked right at home, as if he did this all the time.

Maybe he did? I really didn't know him all that well. And by that I meant that my familiarity with him only extended to how I'd always hear him call out for his captain. "Knight-Captain Cloud! Knight-Captain Cloud! Where are yooouuuuu?" he would keep on shouting over and over. I never thought he cared so deeply about the state of cleanliness of our storage spaces.

After cleaning a countless number of cabinets, we then moved on to bookshelves. I finally couldn't refrain from blurting out my question.

"_Why _are we doing this?"

_We're vice-captains! Not maids or squires!_

The more I scrubbed, the more I felt like our time was being wasted. Surely cleaning cabinets was not at all part of our duties when our time could be better spent patrolling or honing our skills.

Startled, he blinked and darted his eyes at me. "It's a vice-captain's duty to keep all of our cabinets and bookshelves clean!"

"Why?"

"Er, well..."

As he was speaking, he opened the door to this bookshelf-cabinet hybrid, ready to clean it up, and I screamed.

Like, very loudly. The noise tore out of my throat.

"Tyler, it's okay!" Vice-Captain Cloud hurriedly said.

_That _didn't help calm my nerves at all when a ghostly limb reached out from the door and grasped the edges. Following that limb came pale skin and wispy cloth and...

Oh, it was Knight-Captain Cloud.

"See? It's just the Captain."

Knight-Captain Cloud didn't say a word. He merely nodded at his vice-captain once he fully climbed out of the bookshelf-cabinet. He dusted himself off, and I thought I felt his vice-captain stiffen at that. But what did I know. I was still in shock, my heart nearly threatening to jump out of my throat.

"Breathe, Tyler!"

I gasped, and then I realized how rude I had been to Knight-Captain Cloud, treating him like a ghost. I quickly bowed to him and raised my head to apologize-

Only to see an empty corridor where Knight-Captain Cloud had just been standing.

"...Where's your captain?" I asked, feeling myself shiver.

"Oh, he often drifts off like that..."

I gripped the dirty rag I had in my hands so tightly that I squeezed the last bits of water out of the nearly dried thing.

Voice stuck, I tried to distract myself by scrubbing the hiding place that Knight-Captain Cloud had vacated. I carefully peered inside at the dark interior, my head spinning. It looked normal enough, just a little dusty.

_Don't tell me my captain likes to hide in places like this too?_

Maybe I should take up cleaning after all.

* * *

_The Second Suggestion for Serving Your Captain: Clean All Cabinets (so that Your Captain Will Have the Perfect Getaway) _

* * *

**to be continued**

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**A/N:** Looks like this fic is turning into a Tyler character study...! The other vice-captains have kind of taken a backseat, haha.


	4. Suggestion 3: Plant New Trees

A Vice-Captain's Tale

by Lucathia

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

**Suggestion #3: Plant New Trees  
**

* * *

Gripping my sword, I swung at the practice dummy in front of me.

I immediately grimaced.

That had been a _terrible _swing. If I were to strike with such a swing at my captain, it wouldn't even take him ten blows to send my sword flying. In fact, ten blows would already be a generous estimate.

I shifted my sword. _Maybe if I hold it like this instead... _

"Tyler, there you are!" a voice exclaimed.

With a sigh, I lowered my sword, eyes flicking impatiently at the newcomer. _Why is it that I can't ever seem to practice my sword in peace these days? _

"What?" I demanded.

"Come! Come quickly! We haven't much time left!"

With that, Vice-Captain Blaze dragged me off without even telling me where we were going or what was so urgent. This was shockingly becoming a trend.

"Is this an urgent mission?" I tried asking. It wasn't often that I'd get assigned on a mission with the "good, warm-hearted" faction, but it wasn't something that never happened either. In fact, I'd gone on a few missions with holy knights from the Blaze Knight Platoon before, since their specialty of dealing with spirits was unique to their platoon. No other platoon would do.

"Yes, very, very urgent!" he shouted.

I winced and rubbed my ears. He must spend a lot of time with his captain. He didn't _used _to be so loud. Everything out of his mouth today sounded like he was yelling.

* * *

We ended up in a forest.

A few other blaze knights were about. When they spotted us, they saluted. _At least he hasn't led us into a dangerous situation without any backup. _

I warily glanced around, trying to figure out what we were to vanquish here.

"Tyler, over here!" he pointed. "Strike here!"

It was due to my trust in him that I let my blade sing in the air without a second thought - a second of hesitation could mean life or death in a battle - and I felt my blade sink into...

A tree trunk.

The tree toppled over.

I stared.

The blaze knights clapped their hands so enthusiastically that I wondered if I had slayed some great foe of theirs instead of a tree.

Vice-Captain Blaze walked over to the fallen tree, knelt down, and whistled. "Great! That's a clean cut!" He glanced back up at me. "You sure you want to use your blade to do this though? You might dull it!"

"..._What _are we doing exactly?"

I narrowed my eyes. At first, I had thought that these men around me were here for battle, but now I saw that they were holding axes instead of swords, and there was a large pile of logs on the ground.

"Cutting trees!" came the answer.

_...Cutting trees? So there is no foe to defeat but trees?_

"Are we in need of lumber?" I asked.

"Yes! We are in dire need of lumber! Since we don't have much money left... Ahem. You'll help, yes?" he implored.

_You don't have much money left...?_

Even though I didn't exactly understand the correlation between lumber and his money problems, I grabbed the ax he held out to me.

After all, I _didn't _want to dull my blade.

* * *

The sun began to set during our work. Apparently, that was why Vice-Captain Blaze had been in such a hurry, wanting to get things done before it got dark.

I knocked the trees over one-by-one, and some of the blaze knights chopped the trees into further pieces. Off to the side, a group of them looked like they were assembling the pieces into something.

"Now, here's a lesson!" Vice-Captain Blaze exclaimed. He had a smudge of dirt over his cheek. "Remember to plant trees after you're done!"

I raised my eyebrows.

After grabbing a shovel, he began to dig. "See, there are tons of pine trees around us, right? But if we keep on chopping the trees down without planting any new ones, we'll eventually chop the entire forest down. We gotta be more conscious about our surroundings than that!"

Wordless, I exchanged my ax for a shovel. It was true that we had chopped down _a lot _of trees. My pile of chopped wood was huge.

I just never thought that Vice-Captain Blaze cared so much about the environment, or that he was such a proficient lumberjack.

* * *

After I finished planting, I wiped my sweat and surveyed my surroundings again. We had cleared a large area of the forest. In place of the original trees were small mounds of dirt where we had planted new trees for the future generation. It would take years for the trees we planted to grow as large as the ones we had chopped down.

Vice-Captain Blaze was surprisingly very thoughtful and far-seeing, what with his foresight in preserving the forest, and his invitation for me to join them in this endeavor.

He even called out to me before I left.

"Tyler, this is for you!" Vice-Captain Blaze exclaimed. He gestured at a wooden door next to him.

"For me?"

I examined the door. _They must have built it just now. _

"This is made out of pine wood that you helped chop! Doesn't this door feel extra special because of that?"

I touched the door, a sense of accomplishment washing over me. It didn't look like it was the sturdiest door ever, and I could tell that it was hastily made, but... _This is built out of wood that I helped chop! _

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you for such a thoughtful present."

I thought that he must have noticed how I'd been overly focused on practicing my sword, and how I didn't really mingle with other vice-captains.

Perhaps... I should try to get to know them better.

* * *

That night when I returned to my room, I set aside the door the Blaze Knight Platoon had gifted to me, intent on adding finishing touches to it later. What was more pressing was checking on my blade to make sure its edges hadn't been dulled. Swords weren't meant for chopping wood.

Thankfully, my blade looked okay.

I was in the middle of putting my sword away when my door suddenly flew open and hit the wall with a bang.

_What...?_

Eyes wide, I stared at my broken door. It had broken into _two_. Then, I looked up. At the entrance to my room stood Knight-Captain Blaze, his foot still halfway raised.

After lowering his foot, he stepped inside and glanced around, eyebrows disappearing into his bangs. "Huh, how boring."

Behind Knight-Captain Blaze, his vice-captain peeked inside, grinned, and waved at me.

I just kept on staring.

Knight-Captain Blaze shook his head. "Tyler, you are almost as boring as Knight-Captain Judgment!" He looked me in the eye. "But fine, you pass because of that expression you have on your face."

_What exactly did I pass? What expression on my face!?_

As quickly as he had come, Knight-Captain Blaze left, his blazing red hair disappearing from my sight.

However, his vice-captain stayed behind, and he picked up the new door that he and his platoon had gifted to me just today.

"Aren't you glad you have a new door?" he asked, beaming smile on his face. He started fixing my new door in place.

I groaned. _No, I'm not glad at all. My door had been fairly sturdy, yet look at its current condition! It's dead, severed in half!_I didn't even want to consider how my new door would fare if it ever grabbed Knight-Captain Blaze's attention. "You planned this, didn't you?"

He sighed. "Don't worry, Tyler. Once Knight-Captain Blaze deems you boring, it's unlikely that he'll kick your door again!"

_Why are you sighing!? It's good that he finds my door too boring to kick! But wait. Didn't Knight-Captain Blaze claim that I 'passed'...?_

I didn't like the sound of that at all!

Beside me, Vice-Captain Blaze perked up. "You know what? Lesson the second! Always act surprised when your door gets kicked!"

"Oh shut up. I'm not listening to you," I grumbled.

As if I wanted my door kicked again!

* * *

_The Third Suggestion for Serving Your Captain: Plant New Trees so That You Never Exhaust Your Supply of Lumber for Building Doors for Your Captain to Kick_

* * *

**to be continued**

* * *

**A/N: **I thought I would be writing about building doors, but somehow this turned into chopping trees... Didn't get around to describing how well made (or not) the doors are! (Tyler's new door is not very well built, haha) Many of you mentioned doors for the Blaze Knight vice-captain, including 15bubbles, Phireye, and Bloody Destination. Thank you for the inspiration, even though this turned out a little different. :3 Like I mentioned in the prologue, this story will be around 14 chapters total. Prologue, 12 chapters featuring each vice-captain, followed by an epilogue. I might write an extra or two after that as well~.


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